Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for data processing and more particularly, to an electronic apparatus and a method for temporarily storing data thereof.
Description of Related Art
With the development of cloud drives, users have become more and more accustomed to storing documents in the cloud drives. However, a speed of accessing the files through a network unavoidably cannot compare with a speed of accessing the local files. In order to resolve the issue, most cloud drive solutions that are currently available in the market provide a local cache mechanism. In this mechanism, files are pre-downloaded from a cloud drive to a local hard disk to provide a better accessing speed.
For instance, in Dropbox service provided by Dropbox Inc., all files are downloaded from a cloud drive to storage spaces of a local machine, which would occupy all available spaces when the local storage spaces are limited. On the other hand, in Google Drive service launched by Google Inc., all files are downloaded from a cloud drive to storage spaces of a local machine so that a user can choose not to synchronize part of the files. However, this design leads to two issues: (1) most users may not be aware of this setting; (2) the files that are chosen not to synchronize cannot be accessed on the apparatuses.
Moreover, in OneDrive service provided by Microsoft Corporation, a copy of metadata is downloaded for all files from a cloud drive to storage spaces of a local machine, instead of downloading complete copies of all files. The metadata is sufficient for the users to browse, and only when a user's demand for the content of a specific file is confirmed, the file content is downloaded. However, even though spaces for storing the metadata are smaller spaces for storing actual files, the storage spaces are still occupied when the amount of the files is too large. The design does not provide a clearing mechanism after the file content is downloaded. Therefore, with the increase of a usage time of the apparatus, the storage spaces are continuously occupied. When hardware venders continuously reduce storage spaces on apparatuses for saving cost, this storage mechanism is no longer feasible.